EAX seems muffled

[GuildBoss]

Just built a new system and bought a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I've tried the EAX support in a few games (UT, Tribes2, HL, and Serious Sam) and the sound seems "muffled" or subdued. Regular ol' "wave out" sounds MUCH better.

With my old system and Aureal-based sound card (MX300) I used A3D in these games it sounded great, much better than EAX at least.

So, my question is, is it the Santa Cruz or is it EAX? I haven't tried A3D 1.0 yet with the Santa Cruz...

Secondly, what is EAX actually supposed to do?

TIA
Paul

 

[brnbngls]

Don't know if this is the same type of card or not, but I have a SB Live MP3+ card installed on my custom build machine. Great card!! 5.1 Dobly Digital. Anyway, it has the EAX feature and I've not experienced any difficulty or muffled sound in UT. It might also depend on your speaker system. I have a three piece Cambridge Soundworks. The satellites give me real crisp highs and mids. If you've got just a simple pair of desktop speakers, that could be the issue as well.

EAX is simply a digital feature provided by a Creative offshoot that is supposed to deliver ultra realism to games and music. It has multiple customizable features. I know that on my system, I have it configured for a 4 speaker set since I have two sets plugge into my card.

My suggestions are to A.)Check your speaker system and make sure you've got the good stuff. B.)Check your EAX settings and ensure that you're running on the correct number of speakers. C.)Check the output on your sound card. If it's like mine, you've got several output ports. Ensure that your primary speaker set is on channel one.

Let me know if that works. Good Luck!

 

[Rifter]

i used to have a live and then sold it, now i have a Vortex 2 based card, and A3D Just sounds alot better than EAX, EAX usualy in most games sounds kinda wierd, you dont really notice it till you try a Aurel card, then you wonder how you ever put up with EAX.

 

[GuildBoss]

I'm using Sennheiser HD535 heqadphones and the games sound great without EAX but as soon as I switch EAX on, everything gets "muffled".

I'll have to try A3D tonight.